Background and Objectives Hearing loss significantly affects communication, psychosocial well-being, and quality of life. This study analyzes the National Health Insurance Service database to assess the trends and characteristics of hearing loss in South Korea from 2010 to 2020.Subjects and Method The database encompasses 97% of the Korean population, providing comprehensive data on medical history, prescriptions, and health examinations. The analysis used the World Health Organization’s ICD-10 definitions to categorize hearing loss types and examine their prevalence and incidence across various demographics over 11 years.Results There was an overall annual increase of 4.62% in diagnosed cases of hearing loss, with the most significant rise among the elderly. The rate of increase accelerated from 3.32% between 2010 and 2014 to 6.49% between 2014 and 2020, corresponding with the improved hearing aid access facilitated by policy changes. Women showed a slightly higher increase than men. The data also indicated a consistent rise in abnormal hearing test results during health examinations, especially in older adults.Conclusion The study highlights an increasing trend in hearing loss diagnoses, driven by an aging population and enhanced detection facilitated by policy changes. These findings emphasize the need for continuous monitoring and targeted health policies to manage hearing loss effectively, offering valuable insights for global health management and policy development.

Background and Objectives: Certain medications are associated with ototoxicity. This study assesses drug-induced ototoxicity in South Korea by analyzing the Korean national health data. Subjects and Methods: Hospital records of National Health Insurance members from 2009 to 2016 were reviewed. Data were compared between patients with and without hearing loss (HL). Individuals with HL were identified as having a primary diagnosis code for sensorineural HL or another type of HL in at least one outpatient or inpatient record according to the International Classification of Diseases-10. Results: The members in the HL group increased slightly from 0.8% to 1.0% relative to the total sample, compared with 99.2% to 99.0% among the controls. The proportion of males in the HL group ranged from 45.6% to 47.6%, compared with 48.4% to 48.8% among the controls. The proportion of those aged ≥65 years in the HL group increased from 34.1% to 41.4%, compared with 10.6% to 13.3% among the controls. Hypertension prevalence (24.7%-25.7%) in the HL group was higher than that in the control group (12%-12.6%). Diabetes prevalence in the HL group was 10.6%-12.3%, compared with 4.4%-5.9% among the controls. The use of proton pump inhibitor components increased, particularly esomeprazole magnesium trihydrate and rabeprazole sodium, whereas the usage of pantoprazole sodium sesquihydrate and revaprazan was high initially but declined subsequently. The usage of painkillers such as acetaminophen, loxoprofen sodium, and ibuprofen remained high, and antibiotics such as cephalosporins indicated the highest usage. However, the use of penicillin antibiotics such as amoxicillin decreased significantly. Anticancer agents showed relatively low usage compared with other drug categories, whereas antihistamines showed extremely high usage across all years, with a continual increase. Conclusions: These correlations and the underlying mechanisms necessitate further investigation, as several medicines have been linked to an increased risk of HL.

Background and Objectives This study aims to analyze trends in hearing disability and the use of hearing rehabilitation devices (hearing aids and cochlear implants) in South Korea over the past 11 years (2010-2020) using data from the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS).Subjects and Method Data were extracted from the NHIS database, covering approximately 97% of the South Korean population. Patients diagnosed with hearing loss were classified using ICD-10 codes. The data were analyzed to determine trends in hearing disability, hearing aid prescriptions, and cochlear implant usage by age, gender, and types and causes of hearing loss.Results The number of hearing disability patients increased from 170900 in 2010 to 362738 in 2020, with an annual growth rate of 7.95%. The highest increase was observed in the ≥60 age group, with an annual growth rate of 11.04%. Hearing aid prescriptions rose from 4966 in 2010 to 11974 in 2020, showing a 10.45% annual increase. Females showed a higher growth rate in both hearing disability and hearing aid prescriptions compared to males. Cochlear implant prescriptions also increased, particularly among older adults.Conclusion The study highlights a significant rise in hearing disability and the use of hearing aids and cochlear implants in South Korea, especially among the elderly. The findings underscore the importance of early diagnosis and intervention for hearing loss and the need for policy improvements to enhance accessibility and affordability of hearing rehabilitation services. Additional strategies are needed to ensure appropriate hearing rehabilitation for those not yet receiving adequate care.

Background/Objectives: Hearing loss is a prevalent sensory impairment in older adults, linked to reduced quality of life, cognitive decline, and social isolation. While it usually begins in the high-frequency range, some individuals present with isolated low-frequency hearing loss (LFHL). The long-term prognostic implications of such frequency-specific patterns remain unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the risk of long-term hearing deterioration by initial hearing loss type: LFHL, high-frequency hearing loss (HFHL), and combined-frequency hearing loss (CFHL). Methods: We retrospectively analyzed pure-tone audiometry (PTA) data from 10,261 patients who underwent at least two pure-tone audiometry assessments between 2011 and 2022 at a tertiary hospital. Each ear was treated as an independent observation. Hearing loss was defined as a threshold > 20 dB HL at 250, 500, 4000, or 8000 Hz. Participants were classified into normal hearing (NH), LFHL, HFHL, and CFHL groups. The outcome was a final four-frequency pure-tone average (4PTA) ≥ 40 dB HL. Logistic regression adjusted for age and sex was used, with subgroup analyses by follow-up duration. Results: HFHL (OR = 1.66, 95% CI: 1.47–1.89) and CFHL (OR = 2.23, 95% CI: 1.97–2.53) showed significantly higher risks of hearing loss compared with NH. LFHL did not show a significant increase (OR = 0.94, 95% CI: 0.76–1.16). These results were consistent across follow-up durations, with CFHL showing the most extensive deterioration. Conclusion: HFHL is a strong predictor of long-term auditory decline, and risk is further elevated with CFHL. In contrast, isolated LFHL was not associated with increased risk, suggesting relatively favorable outcomes. Frequency-specific classification may aid risk stratification and long-term monitoring strategies.

Background/Objectives: This study evaluated the feasibility of predicting bone conduction (BC) thresholds and classifying air–bone gap (ABG) status using only air conduction (AC) data obtained from pure tone audiometry (PTA). Methods: A total of 60,718 PTA records from five tertiary hospitals in the Republic of Korea were utilized. Input features included AC thresholds (0.25–8 kHz), age, and sex, while outputs were BC thresholds (0.25–4 kHz) and ABG classification based on 10 dB and 15 dB criteria. Five machine learning models—deep neural network (DNN), long short-term memory (LSTM), bidirectional LSTM (BiLSTM), random forest (RF), and extreme gradient boosting (XGB)—were trained using 5-fold cross-validation with Synthetic Minority Over-sampling Technique (SMOTE). Model performance was evaluated based on accuracy, sensitivity, precision, and F1 score under ±5 dB and ±10 dB thresholds for BC prediction. Results: LSTM and BiLSTM outperformed DNN in predicting BC thresholds, achieving ~60% accuracy within ±5 dB and ~80% within ±10 dB. For ABG classification, all models performed better with the 10 dB criterion than the 15 dB. Tree-based models (RF, XGB) achieved the highest classification accuracy (up to 0.512) and precision (up to 0.827). Confidence intervals for all metrics were within ±0.01, indicating stable results. Conclusions: AI models can accurately predict BC thresholds and ABG status using AC data alone. These findings support the integration of AI-driven tools into clinical audiology and telemedicine, particularly for remote screening and diagnosis. Future work should focus on clinical validation and implementation to expand accessibility in hearing care.